Paul Johnson not buying 'extra time' theory

There has been some debate about whether teams that have extra time to prepare for Georgia Tech's offense have more success against it.

The results seem to suggest they do, but what gets lost in that data is the fact Georgia Tech often has the same amount of time to prepare for that defense, particularly during bowl season. Sometimes, it evens out, but there's no question a team like Virginia, which knocked off then-undefeated Georgia Tech earlier this year, made the most of its bye week while the Jackets didn't have one.

This week, both Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech have bye weeks to prepare for their upcoming Thursday night game. Is that really an advantage for the Hokies if the Yellow Jackets have an equal amount of time to prepare for Bud Foster's defense?

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson doesn't seem to think so.

"Well, I think it's probably pretty much the same," he said on the weekly ACC coaches teleconference. " ... Matter of fact, our SID broke it down, and since we have been here, overall, I think we have won more games than we have lost when people have had extra time. Of the nine losses, counting three bowl games, six were road games, and I think seven of them were to ranked teams.

"So I think basically what it says, if you're a pretty good team, you've got a good chance to win if there's an extra week if you're ranked and we are on the road.

"I'm not sure that there's as much -- as long as both teams have the same amount of time, I don't know that it makes a whole lot of difference."